USA

U.S. appeals court allows challenge of uranium mining at Canyon mine near Grand Canyon in partial reversal of earlier decision: A federal appeals court said Thursday (2018, Oct. 25) that the Havasupai tribe and environmental advocates can challenge an existing uranium mine on land near the Grand Canyon where mining was recently banned. The decision…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on Tuesday upheld a 20-year ban on uranium mining around Grand Canyon National Park but ruled in a separate case that a uranium company could open a mine nearby. The two unanimous rulings by the three-judge panel came as the Trump administration considers lifting the ban,…

According to a report from Vox magazine, global use of nuclear power is decreasing since the Fukushima incident. Only 31 countries are still operating nuclear power plants.

Quote from factsheet, compiled by Charmaine White Face for the Clean Up the Mines campaign: “The Mining companies walked away from their clean up responsibilities after decades of mining, leaving the public to bear their toxic legacy. The costs for clean-up of these abandoned sites have been moved from the past uranium mining operators onto…

Democracy Now: “A Slow Genocide of the People”: Uranium Mining Leaves Toxic Nuclear Legacy on Indigenous Land Grand Canyon is the site of a battle over toxic uranium mining. Last year, a company called Energy Fuels Resources was given federal approval to reopen a mine six miles from the Grand Canyon’s popular South Rim entrance.…

As the Arizona Daily Star reports, the Navajo Nation has won a settlement of more than 1Billion US-dollars for cleaning up the abandoned uranium mines formerly owned by Anadarko Petroleum Corp. The settlement resolves a legal battle over Tronox Inc., a 2005 spinoff of Kerr-McGee Corp. Anadarko acquired Kerr-McGee in 2006.

The plans to shut down the White Mesa Mill in San Juan County, Utah, have received mixed responses by the locals. 200 people will lose their jobs over an idle phase of at least one year. But the Mill has been controversial since its beginning in 1980, due to violation of radon standards and contamination…

In an interview with IEEE Spectrum, former NRC-Chairman Gregory Jaczko said that he thinks nuclear power to be an old technology, and that the US will be moving away from it. Read the full article at IEEE Spectrum.

“So long as nuclear weapons exist, we are not truly safe.” This bite from president Obamas speech in Germany is good news. If the number of nuclear weapons is reduced (perhaps, one day, to zero…), the world will find itself to be a step further from catastrophe. Be sure to read the CNN opinion piece…